Good morning Rabbit Bible. We're going to be in the book of
John. Apologies for the feedback.
It's coming out of my brain. We're going to be in the chapter
6-7 and eight of the book of John.
We're actually going to what I want to do today.
Bear with me. I want to highlight three things
that's that really came alive for me out of the book of John
and prepping to hopefully someday be back in South Africa
to be able to preach. I was sort of hop skipping and
jumping through John and God was ministering to me.
I know it's because of and it was through the experiences in
the Middle East. I apologize for that, but that's
how and where God unpacked his word.
And I simply want to spend the next half hour showing what I'm
showing you, what I've seen. That's all right.
So these are the three portions. So the first in John 6 verse 35
says, then Jesus declared, I'm the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me will never go hungry.
If you turn over to Chapter 7 verse 37, on the last and
greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud
voice, let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.
And then finally in John 8 verse 12, when Jesus spoke again to
the people, he said, I'm the light of the world.
Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have
the light of life. And I want to look at those
three things, Jesus explaining how he's the bread of life, how
he's living water and he's the lights and the darkness.
And I want to unpack those 3 today because essentially that's
how God sort of journeyed it to us through our time stuck in a
war zone. So for, yeah, for those of you
who don't know, we were invited to go over RT Kendall was
speaking in the Middle East and he was, he's 90 years old and he
was set to, to preach 9 times in five days.
On the 4th day, war broke out and everything changed.
And so because we were bunkered down, they locked the borders,
they locked the airspace, and no one could go anywhere.
There's no coming or going. And we had some really good
times together and we had some incredible ministry moments with
those around us. But there was a moment when I
was sitting and turning to RT and you asked me, he's like,
what do you think God is doing through all of this?
And I immediately had a reply because God has spoken to me.
I felt in terms of the reason and what he was wanting to do
there. And it, it came out in ACS Lewis
quote where essentially CS Lewis says that God whispers to us in
our pleasures. He speaks to us in our seasons,
but he shouts to us in our storms.
And then it it ends, says Lewis ends that quote by saying it is,
it is God's megaphone to rouse the sleeping world.
The storm is God's megaphone to rouse the sleeping world.
And I said to RT, I said, actually, I would change that.
And I'll say storms God's megaphone to rouse a sleeping
church because I felt that God was wanting to wake me up, that
I'd become comfortable and cozy and He wanted to shake off the
dust. And us being there was part of
this process that He was going to get us through and it.
And He did so by sort of unpacking these three elements
in John 6, 7:00 and 8:00. And he did it because what what
had happened was right at the very beginning RT was in, in
before war had broken out. He was really laboring the point
of us waking up to the fact that God's presence is so near, but
we're so oblivious to the fact that he wants more of us than we
want of him. And so it it really challenged
me and I did decided because we were living in a home like a
typical Middle Eastern home that had a room on the roof.
So I decided, you know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to follow suits like Saints before me for thousands
of years have done in the Middle East.
I'm going to have my quiet times up on the roof.
You can oversee the city, praying for the city.
But basically what I thought God would say was not just to read
Scripture, but to pray Scripture and that he would highlight on
Scripture for me. And you know, kind of like
wonder saying highlighted the spleen.
Praying into the spleen. I felt that God said, you know,
I am the bread of life. You know, the Bible says give us
this day, Our Daily Bread. It's not just talking about
material stuff, but it's talking about that which I need today.
He would be my daily bread. He is the bread of life and I
was to look for that. And so here I am up on the
rooftop, just like Daniel and Joseph and David and all the
Saints before me sitting there having my quiet times and I want
to highlight some of the things that God showed me through that
and specifically some of them. The times what Raw touched on
last week and the first one that I want to jump into is in One
Kings 19. You, you're welcome to turn
there, But essentially the back story to 1 Kings 19, is this guy
larger? You might have heard of him, one
of the great prophets of old. He had also been through the
mill. So he had faced famine, He had
faced drought, he'd faced death and then he faced war.
Essentially the queen Jezebel declared war on him.
He said I will find you and I will kill you.
And so he hottails it out of there.
He spends 40 days and 40 nights running away from Jezebel.
And then eventually we found in one Kings 19, verse 9, it says
that he went into a cave and spent the night.
Now I revisited this because Raw said last week, are you
journeying in the dark without Jesus?
And there's a little bit of that going on here.
So I want to show you what's what God said to me in this and
what I was praying for. So verse 9 of 1 Kings 19 says,
then he went into a cave and spent the night and the word of
the Lord came to him. What are you doing here, Elijah?
And he replied, I've been very zealous for the Lord God
Almighty. The Israelites have rejected
your covenant, torn down your altars and put your prophets to
death with the sword. I'm the only one left and now
they're trying to kill me too. The Lord God said go out and
stand on the mountain and the presence of the Lord for the
Lord is about to pass by. I'm sitting here last week
Sunday. I'm going like, Oh my gosh,
Rory's been reading my mail. I'm about to pass by.
Last week, if you weren't here, Rory spoke about the disciples
in the storm and the presence of God passed by.
And he said this is kind of what Stephen and Kathy were going
through. I'm like, actually, that's what
God was speaking to me on the rooftop.
And he asked the question, why did he pass by us?
Because that is how his glory comes past.
And it's this invitation for us to lay hold of the bread of
life, to feast on him and what he has so that he can be our
resource and our strength. But like Wonder said, yeah, we'd
love to do it ourselves. Let me just control this war.
But the said God says lay a hold of me and he said the same thing
to the disciples and essentially says the same thing to Elijah.
So he says, go out, stand on the mountain and the presence of the
Lord for the Lord is about to pass by the next verse.
Then a voice said to him, what are you doing here Elijah?
Now you might think I'm just rereading the same portion, but
what happens is he says, what are you doing here Elijah?
And Elijah gives all his reasons, then he passes by and
then he says, what are you doing, Elijah?
And Elijah repeats exactly the same word for word.
He says, I've been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty.
The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down the
altars, put your prophets to death with a sword.
I'm the only one left, and now they're trying to kill me too.
I want to take a little bit of a step back because this is Elijah
we're talking about. I think people will know the
name of Elijah in heaven. They might most probably not
know my name in heaven. He's like one of the greats,
right? But if I can be so bold as to
say, Elijah is whinging, he's whining, he's grumbling.
He's just had the the very presence, the manifest presence
of God Almighty pass in front of his very own eyes.
And then he asks the same question and gives the same
answer. You don't know what I'm going
through and the Wi-fi's down, you know.
See, we can't control what we go through in the Middle East, but
we can control how we respond. What are you doing here?
Elijah Winch passes by. What are you doing here, Elijah
Winch? Look at what God does in
response to his grumbling. Verse 15.
The Lord said to him, go back the way you came and go to the
desert in Damascus. When you get there, anoint
Hazarayal, king of the Aram, anoint Jehu son of Nimashi king
of Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shafat from Abel Mahala to
succeed you as prophet sitting in the in the desert in a war
zone. And you're saying to me, what
are you doing here? Our presence is near.
The Bible says he is close to those who mourn.
He's close to those going through a valley.
What are you doing here? And then, then I'll read that
line. Go back the way you came.
I said, Lord, I don't want to go back the way I came.
I don't want to be in the midst of this and go home completely
unchanged. You know, if we were there for
one day or 21 days, nothing would have changed emotionally
and physically. But the difference between being
there one day and 21 days, I was saying, Lord, would there be a
radical change spiritually? May I encounter you?
Because when Elijah encountered the presence of God and did
nothing with it, continued whinging and grumbling and
moaning, it was as if God said, OK, then your season is over, go
and anoint Elijah to succeed you as prophet.
Chatting to Neko Fanimova, he was saying he was reads through
these daily devotionals and he said on the day that we left for
the Middle East, there was just this tiny little portion for One
Samuel 1734. It's out of the new King James
Version where Daniel was busy talking to Saul about what
happened when he was looking after the sheep.
And there's this half verse that Nico shared with me.
He said, and there came a lion, and there came a lion on the day
that we're now heading off to the Middle East, none, none the
wiser, the war that's about to break out.
And God says to him, and there came a lion.
And if you read the little devotional, it essentially says,
here's David minding his own business.
And there came a lion. And if David had not engaged
with that line, if David had run like Elijah or like Elijah had
run, I don't think we'd even know his name.
Because the guy says underneath there, the lion and the bear
prepared him to face Goliath, and Goliath prepared him to be
king of Israel. So when David saw a lion, God
saw a kingmaker. When Elijah saw this queen who
wanted his head, God saw a kingmaker.
When the disciples were in the storm, all they saw was the
possibility of drowning. But God said, I'm going to make
you fishers of men. I'm going to raise you up to
change the world. You need to go through this.
And there came a lion, and there came divorce.
And there came a phone call and there came a loss of hearing.
And there came a business that was collapsing.
What are you doing here, Elijah? My presence will pass by.
What are you doing here, Elijah? Are you whinging?
Are you groaning? Are you moaning?
Are you listing all the reasons why we're you know, it's easy
for you to say. You just don't understand.
Your life is perfect. My life is falling apart.
Or you're laying hold of the God who's passing by.
Now compare apples with apples. Go to larger, God passes by and
you've got the disciples. God passes by, Elijah ends up
whinging. But in Matthew 14 and the fourth
watch of the night, Jesus was about to pass by and it says in
verse 26 of Matthew 14, when the disciples saw him walking on the
lake, they were terrified. It's a ghost they said and cried
out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to
them, take courage. It is I don't be afraid.
Remember Rory said they are 365 times in Scripture that it says
don't be afraid. This is one of them.
And look what happens next in verse 28.
Lord, if it's you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you
on the water. Come, he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat walking on the water.
On one hand, you've got a larger where Jesus passes by and he's
whinging on the other side. He got Peter where Jesus passes
by and he's walking on water. In the situation that you're in
and what you are facing, whether it's missiles exploding over
your head or whether it's an affair that you've heard of or
whether it's your finances that are hemorrhaging, there are only
two responses. There is a whinging and a
whining or there is a walking on water.
There is a king making process that God wants to call you into
and partner with. He says come and feed on me.
I'm the bread of life. I'm right there in front of you.
We don't see him because we're navel gazing and we're comparing
and we're complaining when he's calling us to walk on water to
never be the same again. He's the bread of life.
He's living water and he's light in the darkness.
In verse 37 of John 7 talking about the living water, it says
on the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and
said in a loud voice that anyone who is thirsty come to me and
drink. Whoever believes in me as
scripture said rivers of living water will flow from within
them. So what's happening here is
Jesus is in the temple courts and they are doing a water
drawing ceremony is basically what they did was run this
celebrations festival on the very last day.
The priests would go to the pool of Siloam or Siloam.
It's spelled Siloam. So let's call it Siloam.
We go to the pool of Siloam and they would draw water with these
golden jugs and they would come and pour it on the altar of God.
And they'd eventually there was so much water being poured on
the altar that it would overflow and is running out of this
Tabernacle and it was into the streets.
And in the middle of that Jesus says I am the living water.
So that's the picture right now put a pin in this.
I just want to unpack how how God dealt with me with this
aspect of Christ. So what I was doing when when I
was on the rooftop, I simply went through my Bible reading
plan. I for those of you interested, I
read through Robert Murray Mcshane's Bible reading plan.
It's basically 2 chapters from the Old Testament, 2 from the
new every day. And then every now and then
there's a what chapter from Proverbs or from Psalms.
And essentially you get to go through the whole of Scripture
in the year. So it's just literally it was it
just so happened that every time there's chapters, it just so
happened that I was in one Kings 19 in the Old Testament right at
the very beginning where I was like properly ready to whinge
and moan and God was saying, OK, you can do that or you can walk
on water with me. And I just so happened to be in
Psalm 46 on one of the days where I read and you probably
not be still and know that I'm God.
One of my favorite chapters in the Bible.
And it was like God was just calming the storm.
But the thing was, my wife and I, because we happened to be
there, because we were on eldership and because we're
known in the community, we had the incredible privilege of not
only hanging out with RT from time to time, but we also got to
speak to the elders. And we went to the staff
meetings and connected with some of the couples that were really
struggling. And there was a moment that
someone asked me, like, how are you doing?
And I said, no, we're good. You know, today God just really
said, be still and know that I'm God.
And it was very strange because this was a leader in the
community. And they've pretty much rolled
their eyes, you know, sort of. Yeah.
Easy for you to say, you know, you're out of here sometime soon
with. And I was so thrown by that
because of the person that I was speaking to.
I'm like, yo, there's such dissonance in that moment.
Then I went home and I revisited the song.
I've actually never really dug through this.
I just, you know, I'll be so, you know that I've got this
lovely, you know, get the tattoo and you move on.
But we're not dug. This is what I want to share.
What you know. OK, bear with me.
You know, this is my my rabbit hole.
So I discovered that Jerusalem, so this is a Psalm written about
Jerusalem. And Jerusalem was very unique in
the ancient near East because it was built on a hill.
Most predominant cities were built by a river or a water
source. And So what happened was there
was a time in Israel's history where the northern kingdoms set
their sights on Israel. They said, we're coming for you
and King Hezekiah, knowing the fact that the water was way down
there and also knowing that the king of Assyria's general modus
operandi was to besiege a city. So he was as lazy as they come.
He would just bring hundreds of thousands of people surround a
city. There's no going in, no going
out. And they just wait until you run
out of food and water and then eventually you surrender.
They don't, you know, don't have to shoot an arrow.
So he knows this is coming. And the first thing they're
going to run out of is not food but water because there's no
water source in the river. So what Hezekiah does is he
gives you instructions for people to build or dig
underground tunnels from the spring of Gayon all the way up
to the pool of Siloam. You can't see it because it's
underground. The Assyrian king wouldn't know
that they have a water source, he would just know they are so
far away from the river. This is going to be 3 days and
we're back home. Not even a long weekend we
sorted. And then they go on to say the
following, said Hezekiah realized, and Hezekiah
implemented this because this meant the enemy could surround
the city, but they would still be living water.
And that meant that the Pool of Siloam became the most important
water source in ancient Israel because this capital city was
actually besieged by this king of Assyria.
It was surrounded. And they say this.
And when I read this, I just went cold.
Said he besieged the city. No one could get in and no one
could get out, just like the Middle East.
But they were not defeated because they had access to
living water. So let me read you and join all
the dos. Let me read you Psalm 46.
It begins by saying God is our refuge and strength and ever
present help in tons of trouble. Therefore we will not fear that
the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of
the sea, though its waters raw and foam, and the mountains
quake with the surroundings. Essentially this is a war Psalm.
So Eugene Peterson says that reading Psalms is praying
psalms. So the Israelites would memorize
this and they would read it and pray it.
So they would call on Psalm 46 and times of war when they were
in storms or dark times. And then it says in verse 4, but
there is a river, a river whose streams make glad the city of
God. There isn't a river.
That river is this underground, unseen tunnel that has been
built. And because it is there, she
will not fall. God will help her.
At break of dawn, nations are an uproar.
Kingdom's fall. He lifts his voice.
The earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us.
The God of Jacob is our fortress.
Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he's
brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends
of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters
the spear. He burns the Shields with fire.
And he says, be still and know that I am God.
How? How is that possible?
Because there is a river, because there is not built a
time of war. But before the battle, before
being surrounded, before getting news, before being called into
the boss's office, there was a river.
And when I looked into those hours, I suddenly realized it
wasn't the kickback against the verse Be still and know that I'm
God. It was a kickback and a
realization. That there wasn't a river and
there came a lion, but we could be still and know that he is God
because there was a river. And the river was resourcing us
through the pool of Siloam. And we drank deeply from the
living water and we feasted daily from the bread of life,
because here's the bread, here's the water, and here's the light.
You know, when I read this and prepping for today, I realized,
hey, we've probably gone full circle.
You know, Rory, last week I think I probably wrote it 3 or 4
times, came up at Life Group. Are you journeying in the dark
without Jesus? He is the light of life.
And so I'm like, OK, we're on to something here.
And the Bible says your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to
my path. Jesus is referred to in the very
beginning of the book of John as the Word and so it's important
that you not only have his presence.
You're not only spending time and prayer, but that's you
actually opening scripture to show you how to navigate what
you what is that you're going to?
How do you respond? How do you know that it's a
spleen. So I want to tell you our little
journey through the lights. So what did, what had happened
was, yeah, let me start at the beginning, right.
Like this. The day before we were supposed
to fly out, the missiles hit and now you're sitting there.
No one's ever been this way before.
You don't know what to do. You can't get out.
The only way is more fearful than anything else.
And so we, we just decided, OK, let's let's sort of watch
things. We're not in a rush.
We've got things sorted out with my wife's business back home.
And they chatted to Raw and he said, listen, you know, we we've
got this, just wait it out. But the problem is with war is
you don't know. Is it going to get worse or
better by the next week or the weekend?
Yeah, it could be that could be just throwing stones and, you
know, moaning and grumbling and just, you know, back on social
media being nasty. Or it could be World War Three.
You don't know. So you're sitting and you're
watching and you're trying to soccer analyze all the little
bits and pieces. And they come right up to that
line and then they back away. And then they come right up to
that line and then they're back away and then they'll cross that
line. And I don't know if it was
Israel or America, but someone bombed the the State Bank in
Iran. And so the general gets online
and says, OK, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, if that's how you want
to play, we're going to do the same.
Then they announced, they said, listen, what we actually, we
advise that if you're in a kilometer radius of anything to
do with the the nation's economy, where you're at,
whether you're in Oman or the UAE or Saudi or Qatar or Bahrain
or whatever, all the baddies with the guns.
He said. If you're within a kilometer
radius of anything to do with the economic processes within
your nation says evacuate because we are coming for you.
And they came and it was like escalation like no one expected.
And so then the conversation changed.
We just happened to be sitting with a couple we had gone across
just to spend time with them. They're in a really tough space.
And my wife and I had an incredible opportunity just to
minister and pray. And I get a phone call on the
back of this new unleashing of strategy.
And Adrian and Luther and John were there with us in the Middle
East. And the phone, they said,
listen, what are your thoughts about getting out via Saudi
Arabia? I'm like, yes, I've watched,
yeah, some movies. I know about Saudi Arabia, some
swords and camels. So I'm like, I have my wife with
you. Yeah, I know.
You actually boys, is like, let's do this.
So. Well, speak to her.
So if you want to come, we found a space on the plane that leaves
tomorrow morning from Riyadh, 3:00 AM.
But it means we need to leave in 90 minutes.
Yeah. I just love making high pressure
decisions like that when your life is at risk.
So I hang up and I'm like, numb. My mind is racing.
So say share with Catherine. She's like, well, let's let's
just get the process going. But we're on the other side of
the city because you basically you do these movements and then
they bomb the daylights out of you.
And then you do a little bit of moments, you bomb the daylights
and you wait for all clear. And then you quickly go, hey,
but the guys that we were with couldn't care, climbed in the
car. We broke the speed limit.
You know, it's like there were fireworks in the sky and there
were flashes from all the cameras.
You know, it was paparazzi. So we rushed back and we're
like, OK, are we going to do this?
So a whole bunch of things that we needed to do.
Firstly, we needed to book tickets, which was an absolute
nightmare because my phone had died halfway through the
journey. And I tried to get a new phone,
but you're in another country and you can't get your SIM card
swapped. And so I wasn't able to get OTPS
and I'd Max my credit card. So I was trying to get money out
of bond into the credit card so I could buy plane tickets.
And then there was this random stranger named Michael who
started phoning me. You know, when you're waiting
for that data package to work And this I'm like, hang up and
then first again, like hang up and then first again hang up.
And then we, before we buy those, while we're buying those
stickers, we also need to make sure that we can get to Riyadh.
So you've got to organize a transfer.
And so we're chatting to someone and I'm phoning AD, he's phoning
me. And he said, listen, we found
someone that's going to cost us like 32 grand for Kath and I to
get to just like driving over this 10 hours drive but in a war
zone. But it's 32,000 Rand.
Well, and he's saying, but we need to get make sure we have
tickets because it's kind of pointless getting all the way
there. And then you arrive at the
airport and you don't have a plane ticket and planes are full
because everyone's fleeing in the Middle East.
So make sure that you make a call and this driver, and then
I'll Scroll down and I'll see the fine prints.
The guy says, you know what? This only guarantees that we'll
take you to the border, then you'll disembark and there will
be a taxi waiting for you on the other side.
You know, and what I didn't realize was that there are 4
border posts about 5 kilometers in distance from the one side to
the other side. Can you imagine me and my wifey
with our Gucci suitcases going through sitting here?
And then you get on the other side and that guy's long gone
with your 32,000 Rand. And while I'm trying to figure
this thing out, this phone is ringing nonstop.
I get a phone call from the guy who was leading the church that
we were hosted by. And he's saying he's like this
proper Mountain Lion man of faith.
And he's saying, but I really think this is the only gap that
you're going to get because it is getting worse.
You know, it's only 90 minutes and then you're out of here and
your journey started. He said, I think it's a good
idea. But the people that we're
staying with are saying, listen, please, I don't want you to feel
any pressure. And we're happy to.
You can stay as long as you need to.
Don't make this decision based on us.
And then he says, and if you do decide to go, would you mind
taking my 8 year old mom with you?
And so that's all happening. And then Adrian is phoning me
and he's like the sky is falling.
The sky is falling here. I'm looking at my wife's eyes
and she's saying, baby, I will follow you wherever you choose
to go. And my heart is saying stop.
So eventually I close everything I said to my wife, I'm on the
roof and I got see because about 10 days before that, and it's
too long to tell the detail, but God, I felt, God said to me,
this was a Tuesday. About 10 days before that, I'd
felt God say that we would only be released from this the coming
Thursday, Friday of the week. I'd really felt that God said if
you go anytime before, you're going to be missing out, you
know? And then came a line and Stephen
ran. It's like there's something I
want to do in you. So I'm looking at the the
Thursday, Friday word that I'd felt like 10 days ago.
But I'm also hearing from these church leaders who were saying,
come, come, come. We've got 90 minutes, we've got
to go. And then there's this chop who
just keeps phoning me every time I'm trying to hear from God, you
know? Anyway, so I go outside, I leave
everything behind. I'm just like, Lord, I don't
know what to do. Put my eyes on you.
There's quiet in the storm and I walk back in and I'll pick up my
phone and the top I finally decided to WhatsApp me says, hi,
my name is Michael. When I'm in South Africa, I come
to three CR. I live and work in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia that has an airport that you're wanting to reach.
Said how can I help? Said, do you need transfers?
Do you need plane tickets? Can you please pick up the
phone? So I'm like, hi, random citizen.
My name is Stephen. And what Michael says to me is
he says I can hop in the car. It's big enough to take all of
you. I'll drive there, pick you up,
bring you all the way. So I'm like, and how much is
that going to cost? But in the Middle East, water is
more expensive than fuel. It's like it will cost you
nothing. I'm like, really?
See, I'll go through this border often.
I know exactly what you need to do.
He walks us through that. And then he says, would you like
me to help you buy those plane tickets?
Send me your passports. I'll get my people to get you
the ticket. And he says, and if we get there
and there's any delays, we've got a partners that we can put
you up at and we will see you out of here.
How could you not? And so he did just that.
But the best thing about it was he says he's looked.
So the tickets that we're wanting to get, we're not going
to be able to get onto that. He says the first you'll be able
to get out will be Friday. So Michael climbs in the car,
drives whatever 10 hours, crosses the border, comes and
fetches us. And I kid you not, he arrives.
He opens up the boot to put in our bags closet, and we go.
I'm like, do you want to sleep? Do you want to shower?
Do you want lunch? He's like, no, I'm good.
And he drives us 10 hours all the way through to Riyadh.
Now we were supposed to get there by midnight because the
flight is leaving at 3:00 AM. But on the drive, we found out
that it was delayed by 4 hours. So he says, no problem, I'll
take you to the church house. All right, good.
They're going to pop in at the church house.
Not what church, just Christianity is illegal in Saudi
Arabia. So yeah, we got an underground
church. So we popped in to this
underground church. We arrived there.
The people that lead us to Mark and his mates have planted this
church. A year ago, we arrived there and
we get this pot of biryani. And I'm, I'm sorry, but it was,
it was better than, but I think it was because we were in war,
you know, free biryani, you can't compete.
But this massive pot of Brianna. And because we were there a
little bit earlier, he hired apartments for us to stay for
the night. And so we got to bed at about
midnight. He sought to drive, I think it
was like 45 minutes to his place.
And then he was back another 45 minutes to come and fetch us to
be at the airport by 4:00 AM. And then it just so happened to
spell you the details. But when we got there, they
said, no, it wasn't delayed. You've already missed your
flight. And so he was arranging, we were
going to a different terminal. I know you just got to love this
faith journey. You know, this is lions
everywhere. And so eventually we get there,
we get in the queue and he goes and he buys everybody coffees
and their friends. And then he's stuffing money
into our pockets and saying, listen, on the other side, it's
very expensive. Well, no, you can't do this.
And I was just just give me your bank account details.
Give me your bank account details.
We land in South Africa and I sent a message.
I said because of what you have done for my wife and I at
church, I want to cover all the costs, plane tickets, travel,
accommodation, food and everything like that.
I want to land. I want to show you some of the
things because we're talking about Jesus being the light.
So I wake up that morning about to take my wife into Saudi
Arabia, and I'm still there's, there's still a bit of a storm.
I'm like, I know this is like way beyond coincidence, all
these bits and pieces that have fallen into place.
But I wake up that morning and I want to show you a picture of my
Bible because it just so happened that Robert Murray
McShane, I think he lived in the 1800s or the 1700s, said, OK, I
need to read Daniel chapter 10. So if you zoom in on that, we're
going to. So that's my Bible reading plan
for the morning. Now, I'd only noticed this after
I sent the AV team this picture. That's how it starts.
Then he continued, do not be afraid.
And then, says Daniel, since the first say that you set your mind
to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God,
your words were heard and I've come in response to them.
But the Prince of the Persian Kingdom resisted me 21 days,
then Michael, then Michael and Michael, Lord, I've never met
this garb and he's going to take me into Saudi.
Then Michael, one of the chief Princess came to help me because
I was detained there with the king of Persia.
And now you know me. I like my rabbit holes.
So I'm like King of Persia, if you have your phone, pick up
your phone. I know you have your phone.
Hey, Siri, where would the Persian Empire be located today?
What does your phone say? Iran?
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my beautiful
Lord. We've been detained 21 days
because of the King of Iran, Prince of Persia.
So this is OK Michael's coming. But here's the crazy thing.
I was telling the story to Nico, and he pointed something out to
me that I hadn't seen before. He's like, do you realize that
God had answered your prayer before you even prayed it?
So I was sitting there, Michael, stop phoning me.
I need to go and pray. And God's like, I'm sending you
the answer to the pray. Can you stop calling man then
Michael, there's one last thing that I want to drop in.
We're not going to show it online for those who are
watching on the stream because it is illegal.
I want to show you the name of the church in Saudi Arabia who
sent Michael to fetch us. You can't script this.
And then came a lion. We will face lions.
God will ask you, Elijah, Stephen, Rob, Suzanne, Kathy,
Antoinette, what are you doing here?
If there is the bread of life in our lives, If there's living
water flooding through the city even though we're surrounded,
His word will be a lamp to our feet and a lot to our path.
And because of that, because we laid a hold of Him, when He
passes us by, we won't be those whinging.
We'll be those walking on water. The most important thing about
you is your quiet time. It is your Ground Zero with your
relationship with your Heavenly Father, and I want to encourage
you to dig deep. Dig those tunnels in the private
place, feast on Him and let His Word be a lot to your path, lent
to your feet.